The Ukrainian military has occupied the city of Kramatorsk after an assault, local self-defense has said. Hospitals are “overcrowded with injured,” activists say, claiming that 10 people died in fighting overnight and two were “killed by snipers.”

Anti-government activist, Ilya Dolzhnitsky, told RT that only the
central square remained under the control of the self-defense
forces by Saturday afternoon, gathered in and around the city
council building, the self-defense HQ member said.

At least two people were “shot dead by snipers” during
the street battles in Kramatorsk on Saturday, the activist also
told Rossiya-24. Ten people had been reportedly killed during the
storming of the city overnight, according to self-defense.

“The hospitals are literally filled up, they are receiving a
lot of injured, some of those injured are sent from Kramatorsk to
Slavyansk,” Dolzhnitsky said, adding that the locals have
been bringing medicines to checkpoints as all the drug stores in
the city are closed.

Security forces “shoot at everyone, including
civilians,” the activist claimed. Self-defense think the
military intends to cut them off to “start the operation in
Slavyansk overnight,” according to Interfax.

The Ukrainian troops' assault on Kramatorsk started Friday and continued overnight into Saturday,
with the Ukrainian security forces moving forward despite
resistance from self-defense squads.

Snipers who are controlled by the Kiev government occupied
multi-storey buildings and have been firing from there, an
unnamed source in the Donbass self-defense HQ told Interfax news
agency. He added that the fighting was going on on the city
streets, with different kinds of weapons used.

The source also claimed there were dead in the fighting,
“most of them civilians who happened to be next to the
location where the fighting is now on.”

Unconfirmed reports also claimed that armed units of the radical
Right Sector group are committing atrocities in Kramatorsk. Right
Sector leader, Dmitry Yarosh, has allegedly arrived to the city.

Uncertified but local tells me he heard #RightSector
putting people on knees and shooting in back of head at
#Kramatorsk

Avakov earlier warned that the special military operation in
Kramatorsk would resume on Saturday morning.

“The active phase of the operation will continue at
sunrise,” Avakov said on his Facebook page. “We are not
going to stop.”

The storming of Kramatorsk is part of a wider military operation
in eastern Ukraine, which intensified on Friday morning when
Ukrainian troops attacked the anti-government stronghold of
Slavyansk. The city was surrounded by the military with dozens of
APCs and 20 helicopters engaged in the operation.

The fighting reportedly resulted in three casualties. Two
helicopter pilots have died, according to Ukrainian military
officials, while self-defense forces in Slavyansk said that one
of their members was killed.

Also on Friday, clashes in Odessa between supporters of the
authorities in Kiev and anti-government protesters turned deadly
and claimed the lives of 46 people. About 200 people were
injured.

Much of the casualties were a result of a fire in the House of
Trade Unions. Regional council member and Odessa mayoral
candidate Alexey Albu, who was in the building but managed to
escape, told RT that anti-government protesters barricaded
themselves inside the House of Trade Unions, which was set ablaze
by pro-Kiev radicals.